


use the dead wood to make the fire rise

by mirrorless



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Gen, Possible Explanation for Canonical Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 05:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14489904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirrorless/pseuds/mirrorless
Summary: "There will be no more perfect time to act; using this strategy, a major threat to the village will be neutralized with a minimum of risk. Barring the insubordinate brat that was utilized to perform the Edo Tensei, not a single shinobi of Konoha need be wasted in the undertaking."





	use the dead wood to make the fire rise

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the Linkin Park song "Burning In The Skies".

 

 

The light from a single weakly flickering torch sets shadows dancing across the stone cavern, a forgotten space deep beneath the Hokage Monument that remains bare and disused for years at a time, save for the occasional conduction of certain clandestine meetings.

Such as this one.

Danzō's uncovered eye glares down at the operative kneeling at his feet, the dark hair of the agent's bowed head obscuring his face from the councilman.

"Do you understand your orders?"

He almost bites his tongue on the words - spoken out of unconscious habit, never expecting any response other than a confident and respectful _"Yes, sir!"_ before an underling departs to complete whatever mission it has been tasked with.

There is no need for this particular operative to even bleat out the perfunctory affirmation; its every movement is inextricably tied to Danzō's will - there is virtually no possibility it will fail to perform satisfactorily, even should the emissary wish it.

Still... he has long missed this voice, and the chance to hear it will, with good fortune, not soon again arise.

Distantly cursing himself for the indulgence of sentimentality, Danzō carefully feeds the slightest bit of chakra into the reanimation's enslavement seal from its master, meticulously inked on his own left arm.

This will allow the shinobi enough agency to lift his head, to speak, but nothing more.

Any greater freedom could prove... _troublesome_.

Danzō deftly avoids meeting Kagami's strange eyes as the revenant jerks its head up and rasps -

_"Are you out of your mind?!"_

Though he expected nothing short of snarling outrage, Danzō hides a flinch at the indignant incredulity in the opening words of a once dear voice that has been silenced for decades.

"Destroy _Uzushio_?! You would have me _aid_ Kirigakure in their assault and reduce Konoha's greatest ally to ash and rubble, because you believe they _might_ one day turn against us? What - what madness is this?!" Kagami's voice cracks as his demand reverberates throughout the cavern.

Danzō takes a steadying breath.

There is not time to outline for his old comrade the numerous perfectly sound justifications - that have proliferated rather concerningly over recent years - for tonight's actions. If the urgent missives his agents have intercepted can be trusted, Uzushio will have realized by now that their once staunch ally either _will_ not or _can_ not come to their aid in time to help prevent its destruction. The Uzukage will doubtless employ every desperate measure, exhume every ancient and secret defense the island holds in hopes of defending their people - with a bit of luck, they may somehow manage to avoid a killing blow from the forces of Kirigakure.

Kagami, in his current form an indestructable master of consuming flame and devastating lightning, must be the one to ensure they do not manage to rise again from off their knees.

It would be far easier to dismiss him now, without another word passing between them, but for the irritatingly insistent urge to somehow assure his old friend, this loyal shinobi of Konoha, that he is indeed acting in the village's best interests.

"There have been many significant changes in the world since your... passing," Danzō says, careful to keep his tone even. "Uzushio is no longer our indisputable ally."

Kagami gawps, and would surely be flailing about in disbelief if circumstances allowed.

"But - but Lord Hashirama's covenant! Mito-sama -"

"Is dead."

Horror devastates Kagami's face, inference clear. Danzō's impassive facade shatters, features twisting in disgust as he takes an involuntary step forward and snaps, " _I_ didn't kill her, fool!"

"You killed _me_."

The cavern falls entirely silent then, as something winds painfully tight in Danzō's chest.

It is no venomously spat condemnation - Kagami's words come soft, bewildered, as though the dead man still cannot quite grasp the truth of them.

Cannot make himself believe that his trusted friend would, without any previous indication of resentment or malice, drive a kunai into his spine and then stand over Kagami as he lay broken and dying in the dirt, a hovering vulture awaiting its opportunity to make off with the choicest pieces of a fresh corpse.

The man's innocent incomprehension stabs into his former comrade with greater efficacy than any piercing accusation ever could.

"Your Sharingan," Danzō grits out, finding himself, as he also had in Kagami's final moments, attempting to explain - despite his previously firm resolve to avoid picking at old wounds.

"It changed, when we returned from the Land of Lightning. And so did you. You withdrew from... everything. Then, when you finally deigned to emerge from your solitude like a wraith from dark shadow, the reckless way you threw power around after the Nidaime's death - it put enemy and ally alike on edge. The others could not bring themselves to see it, but you were not yourself. You were unstable. A liability."

"I was _grieving_ ," Kagami counters, expression again openly incredulous.

"Have you forgotten how we wept together, for his sake? And yet, in the face of that devastating loss, still I put my heart aside and focused that terrible energy toward ensuring the safekeeping of the village - do you honestly not recall? Despite all we had endured as comrades, you were so quick to conclude the worst and cut me down -"

"I regret it."

The _still_ bitter truth, never intended to be spoken aloud falls unbidden from his tongue, hangs heavy in the air, as near to a plea for absolution as Danzō will ever utter.

He forces himself to meet Kagami's gaze.

"If any Uchiha might have had a Will of Fire strong enough to overcome the damned Curse of Hatred, it would have been you. But I could not justify that risk, nor wager the future of the village on what I _hoped_ to be true."

Danzō's eyes again fall away to the shadowed crevices of the cavern wall.

"Like the Shodai before me, I found the cost too great; I had no other choice - I could not spare my friend."

Kagami shakes his head, blinking rapidly as though still thoroughly disoriented; an after-effect of being pulled from the realm of the dead, no doubt.

"If... if you truly regret the death of one man you rushed to condemn, _think_ Danzō, of the weight you will bear upon the unwarranted destruction of an entire _nation_ \- every last innocent child of Uzushio, the progeny of old comrades we once proudly stood with side by side, dead by your command."

Dark, unnatural eyes bore into the bandaged shinobi, desperate and imploring.

"Stop this _now_. You hold the power here to shape the future of the Elemental Nations; call together your forces, use the Mangekyō Sharingan you took from me to transport them to Whirlpool in time to aid the Uzukage against Kiri's threat, thus reforging old bonds, and -"

"And two years from now, or five, perhaps a generous decade - Uzushio will forget who rallied to her shores in time of urgent need, and the rumblings against Konoha will start up again, louder than before. Only then, the golden opportunity to address such belligerence will have long passed by."

Danzō shifts slightly, leaning more heavily on his walking stick.

"There will be no more perfect time to act; using this strategy, a major threat to the village will be neutralized with a minimum of risk. Barring the insubordinate brat that was utilized to perform the Edo Tensei, not a single shinobi of Konoha need be wasted in the undertaking."

Kagami blinks at him again, open-mouthed - his objections, for the moment at least, seeming to have died in his throat.

Danzō sighs, feeling more entirely the burden of the years that have passed since last they spoke.

"Besides," he admits, "I cannot access your Kamui. The only time I attempted it my chakra reserves were depleted almost instantly - I spent several weeks recovering. Homura forbade me from ever repeating the endeavor, insisting he'd only just managed to drag me back from the very brink of death."

"Homura?" Kagami croaks, and the fresh pain twisting his face moves Danzō to quickly clarify.

"His involvement was necessary to successfully perform the transplant. He and Koharu are aware I have your eye, but not how I acquired it. They were told it was a... parting gift."

At this he expects no less than blatant revulsion, but Kagami merely stares up at him for a moment, then sighs heavily himself, dark head falling as though weighed down by unbearable disappointment.

"I would not have denied you, were you truly in need of it," he says quietly. "You are - _were_ my friend."

Danzō's throat constricts, and he swallows hard as strange, defiant eyes rise again to meet his own.

"You murdered me, _supposedly_ because you feared I'd become a monster - now you would fashion me into one yourself. An abomination. A _traitor_."

"You were a cataclysm waiting to happen," Danzō hisses, gripping so tightly on the head of his walking stick that red beads form where one white knuckle has suddenly split open.

"But yes, we _were_ friends, and so I was merciful; as painlessly as I could, I sent you to To- to whatever peace comes after this loathsome world, while _I_ have remained here, struggling against formidable odds to shape the future favorably for the village, to preserve the legacy of our masters."

One dubious dark brow raises at that, but Danzō has regained his composure, and smoothly continues, "While I am sorry to pull you from your rest, this is a _mercy_ to Uzushio as well - in its fall there will be no prisoners taken, no torture endured, no time even for the cloak of grief to settle on its shores. With your assistance the forces of Kirigakure will tonight annihilate every man, woman, child, and beast on the island; every hall of governance and education will crumble to a smouldering heap. There will be nothing left to scavenge, not a modicum of their ancient knowledge remaining to threaten those that have _faithfully_ kept their oaths of alliance."

Suddenly aware of how his voice has risen to the point of resounding from the cavern walls, Danzō pauses to again take a steadying breath.

"As for the accusation of _betrayal_ ," he murmurs with somber resolve, "I would embrace such a charge, should it mean ensuring the well-being of Konoha."

He looks down at Kagami, face softening with some negligible pity.

"Time is short. Had we greater opportunity for discourse, I doubt that I could convince you of the necessity of this mission. But be at peace, Kagami; you are merely the instrument, the most perfect tool for the unenviable task, forced into service against your own desires - you bear no guilt for what has been orchestrated, and when the deed is done I shall release you once more to what awaits in the hereafter, until such time as the village has need of you again."

"Danzō," Kagami chokes out in a tormented rasp, his unnatural eyes widening in horror, as though at last truly seeing the course of his own fate and that of so many others lying before him, incontrovertible.

"My friend," his voice cracks, and Danzō loathes how the heavy desperation coating it prickles across his skin.

"You _cannot_ \- if ever you loved me, please, _I beg you_ , don't make me -"

"Silence."

A pulse of chakra into the seal on his arm and Kagami's mouth snaps obediently shut, though the man still stares beseechingly up at Danzō, in his anguish still grasping a final thread of hope that his old comrade might yet be swayed.

Such foolish faith has only ever rewarded him with a blade in his back.

"Go," Danzō commands with all the impassiveness of the unfeeling mountain they lurk beneath.

"Return Uzushio to the sea."

The reanimation stiffly rises to its feet, Mangekyō Sharingan materializing as the terrible despair in Kagami's eyes is entirely replaced with such raw murderous intent, its singular target plain, that Danzō cannot help but recoil, unconsciously drawing the arm marked by the master enslavement seal closer to his breast as though for desperate reassurance. The specially requisitioned mask of Kirigakure's elite forces falls to cover Kagami's face and the revenant is swept up into the vortex of Kamui, leaving Danzō alone in the musty vault.

He stares into the space where his former comrade had been for a long moment before sighing once more, turning to make his exit and head toward his office to prepare for the inevitable tragic news. Doubtless Hiruzen's own will be in abject disarray in the coming days - _someone_ must keep things running smoothly.

Unnoticed behind Danzō, the struggling torch adorning the stone wall at last flickers out, returning the empty cavern again to stagnant darkness.


End file.
